Top Ten Tuesday: Author Events

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Authors I’ve Met. 

I am very lucky to be able to attend author events pretty regularly, whether it be as part of individual authors, panel events, or even a reader's retreat that I attend every year. For my post today, I am going to share about some of the more recent events I have been too. If I go back 15 or 20 years there are some big name authors I could name such as Paullina Simons, Maria Snyder and more. I could also talk about the time I had dinner with Sara Donati in the Pacific North West or many years ago with Paullina Simons but I won't. For my post today, I am going to share about some of the more recent events I have been to which means that they are all Australian authors. 

Tess Woods -The most recent event I went to was in respect of Tess Woods new release, The Cairo Bridal Shop. Sometimes at these events there are even cocktails

Anita Heiss - I have met this author a few times now, and she was even the author on our table at one of the retreats we attended a couple of years ago. She is such a lively person! I last saw her at a romance panel event I went to a few weeks ago

Also at that same event there were a number of other authors including Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus , Nina Kenwood, Victoria Brownlee, Darcy Green and more. And there was swag!

Jodi McAlister - This author was at that same panel event but I have now met her a couple of times, including at the launch of her latest book

Steph Vizard  - This is another author I have met more than once who was at the panel. I see her at quite a few events, but specifically attended her book launch last year and re-met her at the readers retreat that I attended in June

Emma Grey - I was so excited to attend an evening with Emma Grey and Kate Solly. I read two of Emma's books last year and gave them both 5/5. This one was at a bookstore I had never visited before which is always fun.

Benjamin Stevenson - The author of the Ernest Cunningham series came to my local library as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival so I always try to attend events there because I would like there to be more!

Tom Trumble - a more unusual choice for me given that it is a non fiction book but I chose it because I thought that my husband would like to come to this one and he did. This event was held at the War Memorial. Interestingly, it was only as I searched my blog for a picture for this post that I realised that I had heard this author speak previously at a Melbourne Writer's Festival event 15 years ago!

Holly Brunnbauer  - An event at my previous local library which is about half an hour away from me, so I try to go to events there as well. 

Rachael Johns - Rachael Johns is possibly the only author who I would deliberately go and see twice in one day. On this particular day she was at my local library and also at an event called Books in Bars which is held in a regional city about 90mins away. Of course, I did both! The readers retreat that I have mentioned a couple of times is her brainchild. You can read about the fab time I had at this year's event here. 

Six Degrees of Separation: Wuthering Heights to The Secrets of the Huon Wren

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Boondock Ramblings.

This month the starting point is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. 

When Kate announced this as the starting point, she mentioned that it was in celebration of the current movie adaptation starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. Another recent movie adaptation that I have seen is Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, which tells a story about William Shakespeare and his family

I did have several different ideas about other movie adaptations, but instead I am choosing a non fiction read called Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Dame Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea. In this book, Dame Judi talks about her life working in the theatre in many different roles. It's a fascinating book.

I don't read a lot of non fiction, but I did recently attend a book talk about a book called Survival in Singapore: The triumph and tragedy of Australia's greatest commando operation by Tom Trumble. It tells the story  of a daring raid on Singapore Harbour following the Japanese invasion in 1941 and the aftermath for the citizens of Singapore

I am casting my mind back many, many years now, to a book that has stuck with me. Tanamera by Noel Barber is a book that I remember with great fondness.  Tanamera tells the story of a white family and a Eurasian woman both during the Japanese occupation and in the years afterward during the Malayan conflict. I used to love Noel Barber's books when I read them back in the late 1990s but I am not sure how they would stand up now if I was to reread them. I do still own quite a few of them. Tanamera was made into a mini-series in the late 1980s. 

A more recent WWII and aftermath TV adaptation is The Narrow Road to the Deep North which also stars Jacob Elordi, and was adapted from Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan's book of the same name. 

Now, if this was a 5 Degrees of Separation post then I would have gone full circle back to the starting book given that Jacob Elordi starred in both adaptations but alas, I need to add one more link. I am choosing a book by another Tasmania author. I read both of Claire van Ryn's books last year and thought they were great, so for my final choice I am going to select her book The Secrets of the Huon Wren (my review)

Next month, the starting point is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans which I currently have out of the library!

Will you be joining us?

This week...

I'm reading

Another week where I just didn't find a lot of time to read! I did finish The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters which I loved, and then I started Sophie Green's book Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon but I am probably about a quarter of the way in...maybe. I am not sure when I will be able to get back to this book now.

The problem I have is that I have multiple blog tour books this week and I have only read one which is The Silent Resistance by Anna Normann which was really good! I am going to be feeling the pressure all this week!

I was supposed to go to three bookish events over the last week but in the end I only went to one, but it was a really good one. I went to an author talk at our Shrine of Remembrance for a non-fiction book called Survival in Singapore by Tom Trumble. It is a non fiction book about some events in WWII Singapore. After the talk we attended the Last Post ceremony which focussed on the fall of Singapore which was 84 years ago yesterday.

We were also a bit nerdy. We caught the train through the new Metro Tunnel and got out at all the new train stations for a look around on the way! It was a fun day!

I'm watching


We've pretty much only been watching the Olympics ranging from curling to ice dance to moguls and the other events that the Aussies have won medals in!

We did catch most of the 2025 Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo when it was showing on free to air TV last week. It bought back such great memories of when we were there live 18 months ago. There is a military tattoo happening in Brisbane this weekend and we gave tickets to my step daughter and her partner. I am a bit jealous that they are going although the weather isn't going to be that great. 



Life

My husband isn't one for the big gestures but we have always done something for Valentine's Day. This weekend we went to lunch at a winery which is about 15 minutes away from home. We have been meaning to try this winery ever since we moved into the area. It won't take us another 3.5 years to go there for a meal again!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Library Love!

Us Against You by Fredrik Backmann

Weekend Cooking: The Golden Spurtle

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: January Statistics

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings